Andrea and Jamel Engagement Photos

I had a super fun photo session at Manhattan Beach yesterday evening with Andrea and Jamel who will be tying the knot in July this year!

They were both a lot of fun to work with...I really enjoyed picking on Jamel each time he stopped smiling or got worried about having to do cheesy poses that some of the other couples on the beach with other photographers were doing. :)  They were both super sweet and I loved being able to sit on the sand with them for a bit hearing their story of how they met while we waited for the sun to get low.

Something about being at the beach at any time of day, but especially during sunset, is so pleasing and serene...and the fact that I was "working" while enjoying the beach just makes me smile. :) :)

Here's a little sneak peek for Andrea and Jamel.  Thank you both for trusting me to capture this special time in your lives. :)

Fun around the South Bay

This past Saturday I took Caydan and drove around town looking for new places to take pictures....I didn't end up finding anything - just some of the same places I've already done photos.....BUT, since I have a new camera and new editing techniques, it feels like they're new locations all over again! :)

Here's some of my favorites below....the photo of Caydan sitting on the bridge with the giant smile on his face - that's a new editing technique I'm working on....I've seen other tons of other photos edited similarly, but I could never figure out how they did it....but I've tapped into it a bit here....I love the look, very retro.  Like a photo from the 50's or something (lol, I could totally have my decade wrong here though!). :)

Anyways, here's my favorites that I took....I'm seriously considering getting him into modeling, probably later this year because I'm going to have a bunch of free time open up for me then. :) :)  What do you think?  Could he make it as a child model?? :)

Oh - I almost forgot to mention his cry-baby pics...he is very sensitive sometimes...so if I tell him that he's not listening to me (which is constantly! But what do you expect from a 4 yr old...) then he gets upset and says that he'll listen...he doesn't like to be scolded at all...and he cries at the drop of a hat....so I took some pics because he was so cute crying. :)

Strangeling Art Giveaway on Haute Whimsy blog

OK, i admit...this is completely unrelated to this photography blog....BUT, I wanted to share (plus I get another entry for doing this, hee hee!) -

if you haven't been over to the Haute Whimsy blog yet, you are missing out!  She does tons of awesome giveaways all the time and constantly posts some super interesting things....

Right now she is doing a giveaway for Strangeling Art...check it out and enter for yourself...this stuff is awesome. :)

http://www.hautewhimsy.com/2010/03/strangeling-giveaway.html

A and J - March 2010

Oh how I love this field of flowers...yes, I've taken pictures there just about 3 days in a row now...but I can't help it!  1) It's BEAUTIFUL, and 2) the flowers will die...and it will be a big, brown, empty field eventually...and I don't know when that day will happen, so I'm going to take full advantage of it now!!  Besides, this family is the ones that told me the flowers were in bloom in the first place...so I owe these beautiful scenic photos all to them. :)

Below is a little sneak peek at the session...and I have to say, this photo below of the two of them together might be one of my all-time favorite sibling photos.  It's hard to get siblings to interract naturally with each other....but this one turned out well. :)

Also - if you're reading this and don't mind....could you tell me how the color in these images look on your monitor??  I'm having issues as I'm looking at the same images in 4 different programs...1 of them looks ridiculously over saturated (really red skin basically), 1 looks really under-saturated, and the other 2 look fine, including the ones I'm looking at on this blog....so I'm curious as to how you all see it as well....your comments are appreciated! :)

Adorable Ephram

How cute is this little one???  He has got some gorgeous eyes and an addicting smile.  He wasn't a fan of sitting in the grass...or on a blanket either for that matter...but he still produced some adorable pictures, so it doesn't matter! :)

Here's a couple for a little sneak peek at them.  I'll post more later. :) :)

Beautiful flowers!

Last summer I think it was, I was browsing through photographer's blogs and found a local one who had done a photoshoot at this beautiful spot in Palos Verdes with gorgeous yellow flowers everywhere....I was in awe!!  I drove down to the place that same week expecting to take some photos, only to find out that they were seasonal and completely dried up and dead....nothing but barren land left behind. :(

Then today, one of my clients called me and said that her and her family had just discovered this beautiful spot in Palos Verdes where the flowers were all in bloom and wanted to do a photo session there.  When she told me where it was located, I knew that it was the same place....boy, was I excited!! 

So I drove down there today after work and took my son, and started snapping away!  It was just as beautiful as I had imagined...so now I'm moving my shoot this Saturday to this location, and hoping someone else will want to do photos here as well!!!  Look!! :)

P.S. This is also a sneak at my new and improved photo processing process....these are samples of images with all the additional post-processing that your photos will receive as well. :)

NASA Racing

I had the honor of joining some friends today for a fun afternoon at the AAA Auto Speedway.  I had never seen an auto race live before, let alone one that included someone I knew racing!  It was a lot of fun to be behind the scenes and see the car up close and feel the excitement and adrenaline around everyone.  Caydan even got to sit inside the car for a bit! :)

I took tons of pictures since this was my first real chance I got to play with my new camera!!  I can only echo what I've already said a hundred times now...I LOVE MY CAMERA.  It's just beautiful. :)

Here are some photos I wanted to share of our day today. Thanks for inviting us!! :)

P.S. Yes, his sponsor is Bravo Condoms just in case you're wondering, lol. :)